21. Monday, July 2, 2012
MONDAY, JULY 2, 2012
I n her dedicated parking spot behind Castro Aquarium Service, Julia sat in her work van and cried.
It had been a horrible day at work – maybe the worst of her life – so when she finally got it out of her system, she was tempted to call William and kvetch. She glanced at the time on her phone screen: almost four o’clock. In only an hour and a half, she and her parents were meeting William and his mother for dinner at Ann’s new condo. They were all long overdue for a visit, and Alison had volunteered to take Paige and Robert to dinner so it would just be the grown-ups.
Julia exchanged her work van for her Subaru and raced home as quickly as traffic allowed. After a speedy shower, she allowed her hair to air dry and threw on a casual maxi dress and scarf, just in time for Alison to ring the doorbell.
While Paige ran out to Alison’s car and Robert ran circles around his mother and aunt, Alison’s worried gaze lingered on Julia. “Are you okay?” she whispered.
Julia tried, and failed, to force a brave smile. Her shoulders sagged instead. “Not really. I’ll call you later.”
Alison’s eyes widened in alarm. “Is it because of William? Because of what I asked you to tell him? ”
“No!” Julia stroked Alison’s arm and managed a real, if faint, smile. “It has nothing to do with that, I promise. I’ll tell you about that later, too.”
Alison puffed out a breath. “Thank God.”
Julia forced a smile, and then Alison caught Robert around the waist as he ran by, sweeping him over her shoulder like a fifty-pound sack of flour. “All right, you beast! You’re more like an overstimulated chihuahua than a tadpole.”
Dangling upside-down over Alison's shoulder, Robert squealed with delight as she stomped out the front door. Julia laughed heartily, thanking her lucky stars for her free-spirited sister.
Once Alison and the kids departed, Julia shuttled her parents to Treemont. After dropping them off at the entrance and finding a parking spot, Julia joined them in the foyer, where they appraised their surroundings.
While working for an estate lawyer in San Jose, Julia had visited her fair share of retirement communities and nursing homes. All too often, their twee Victorian or stately Georgian aesthetics were meant to evoke a distant, reassuring past. But Treemont had a more mid-century vibe. The building itself dated to the fifties, with its clean lines and concrete planes; but a central atrium allowed natural light to pour in. Green plants, thoughtfully-spaced wooden accents, and tasteful pops of color did the rest. There was nothing fancy or hip about the place, but it didn’t look worn, dated, or cold.
Julia bit her tongue – she didn’t want to give her parents the impression she was trying to influence them one way or the other.
“Ready?” Julia gestured to the elevator. “Will said Ann's condo is on the fourth floor.”
The elevator dumped them out into a carpeted hallway. Grasscloth in a muted seagrass-green papered the walls, and modern art between each front door provided more pops of color. They followed William's directions to a door numbered twenty-three, and knocked.
“Come in, come in!” Ann greeted them with her warmest smile, swinging the door open wide and waving them in. After inviting them to hang their sweaters in the hall closet, she beckoned them further inside. “Will’s just finishing up dinner. Let me show you around. ”
Once again, Julia's parents craned their necks around, absorbing their surroundings as Ann led them into the living room. A countertop separated the living room from the kitchen, where William turned from the stove to wave hello. “Sorry, just wrapping up here; give me one minute.”
Julia winked, and he winked back before turning back to the stove. But if her parents heard him, they didn’t show it, because Ann’s guided tour had them enthralled. The space was small but didn't feel cramped, with its vaulted ceilings and skylights. Sliding glass doors led out to a balcony overlooking the restaurants and shops of the Inner Sunset. There were no steps in the condo to trip over. The bathroom was wide enough to accommodate walkers and wheelchairs. It had a walk-in shower with grab bars and a seat. In spite of all this, it didn’t feel like an “old folks’ home.” Everything in the condo was freshly updated with clean, transitional-style finishes.
While her parents settled on the sofa, catty-corner to Ann's recliner, Julia drifted to William in the kitchen. He was plating dinner, but when she joined him at his side, he smiled and bent to plant a quick peck on her lips.
“What did you make?” she asked.
“Pasta alla norma.”
“Can I help?”
“You already are.” He offered a quick wink before whisking the plates to Ann’s small dining table. Julia delivered the salad, and together they poured wine for their parents.
“You know you don’t have to abstain on my account,” he said quietly when he saw her pouring a glass of mineral water for herself.
“It’s on my own account,” she reassured him with a tired smile. At the sight of it, he froze, wine bottle in hand.
“Are you okay?”
“I had a rough day at work,” Julia sighed. “Would you mind if I told you about it later?”
His eyes made a concerned circuit of her face, but he nodded. Without another word, they carried the beverage glasses to the table, and William summoned everyone to dinner.
“Just like your nonna used to make,” Ann praised William, her smile poignant as she pointed to the pasta alla norma with her fork. He offered a complaisant smile in return, and then Julia’s mother lifted her wine glass.
“To grandmothers.”
They echoed her toast, and each took a sip before returning to the subject of Ann’s new home. Ann described how the residents regularly got together for barbecues in the courtyard, workouts in the community gym, and parties in the community center. In addition, they enjoyed regular outings to the theater, museums, the local senior center, and more. She shared all the juicy gossip she had gleaned so far on each of her neighbors.
While they talked, Julia found her mind wandering back to the day’s events. She didn’t realize her expression had soured until she caught William watching her with a worried frown. She straightened, plastering on a feeble smile, but from the deepening furrows in his brow, he wasn’t buying it.
After dinner, Julia cleared the table and washed dishes, while Ann took Julia’s mother to meet a neighbor. William and Julia’s father watched a baseball game on TV, sharing silent space in the living room. When Julia finished the dishes, she ventured out onto the balcony to get some fresh air, take in the view – and give William an opportunity to join her. He took the hint within a minute, sliding the balcony door shut behind himself.
“Your dad is happily engrossed in the Giants game,” he assured her in a low voice as he stopped just behind her shoulder and slid an arm around her waist.
She sighed. “Sorry about my glum mood tonight.”
They never actually looked at each other; just stared out over the neighboring rooftops at the corner grocery stores, shops, and Asian restaurants of Irving Street. He said, “Do you want to talk about it?”
To Julia’s dismay, tears pricked again at her eyes. She thought she had gotten them all out of her system in the van. “I got sexually harassed at work.”
His wide eyes snapped to hers. “What?!”
She shushed him, peering through the sliding glass door to make sure her father had not heard .
William gently clasped her shoulders and turned her to face him. “What happened?”
The tears spilled over. “You know how Mondays are my aquarium servicing days, right?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, my last client of the day is an insurance office, and it’s one of the more lucrative of my remaining contracts – nowhere on par with Lars and Meg’s account, but a distant second. The lead agent is nice enough. Kind of dull; but at least she stays out of my way. But she has this forty-something son who’s waiting to take over the agency when she retires. And every week, he kind of hovers over me–”
“What do you mean, hovers over you?”
Julia could tell he was doing his best to stay calm, but his tone carried a definite edge. “Hanging around, asking questions about everything I’m doing and how everything works, and just generally being annoying. It’s why I save their account for the last of the day: it always takes the longest to finish, with Chad’s constant interruptions.”
William gave a single, rueful laugh. “Chad?”
“Right? And he’s a total Chad, too. Pastel shirts and chinos, spiky blond hair... The thing is, I’m used to this crap from men, like they don’t really believe I can do the job. Usually, they chill out after they see how capable I am, despite my two X chromosomes. But Chad... he’s just been relentless. I couldn’t tell if he was genuinely interested in saltwater aquariums, or if he just doubted my competence.”
“What did he do to you?”
Sighing, Julia studied the people and cars on the street below. “He wasn’t in the office when I arrived, but he came in when I was about to siphon the old water from the tank. And he was wearing a golf visor, no less – go figure. Anyway, he comes over and starts asking what I’m doing, like usual. He’s never seen me do it.” Peering up at William in a wary, sidelong way, Julia asked, “Do you know how that works? The siphoning?”
William shook his head.
She looked out at the street again, without really seeing anything. “It’s just a basic gravity siphon. Nowadays there’s all kinds of fancy equipment you can use, but I still do it the old-fashioned way. You have this tubing, and you sti ck one end into the dirty water. The other end of the tube sticks out of the aquarium, over the top edge. You put your siphon bucket on any surface that’s lower than the aquarium’s water level. You get the water flowing through the tube, and gravity does the rest.”
“Okay... so what does this have to do with Chad sexually harassing you?” he asked, heaping extra contempt on the Chad .
“He kept asking me how you start the water flowing through the tube. He acted like he didn’t know, but I’d bet my life savings he knew exactly how.”
With a bewildered frown, William asked, “Okay... how do you start the water flowing through the tube?”
Again, Julia pinned William with a wary look. “You suck on it.”
As understanding slowly unfolded, William’s expression morphed from confusion, to horror, to outrage.
“Exactly,” Julia said drily. “I did everything I possibly could to avoid using the word ‘suck.’ Like for example, I said, ‘You use your mouth.’ But he just kept saying ‘I don’t understand,’ or ‘How do you use your mouth?’ And then he said something like, ‘But isn’t that dirty?’ And like an idiot, I said, ‘Not if you know what you’re doing.’ And then he said...” Her heart rate picked up, remembering, and her voice grew strained. “He said, ‘Well, I can certainly tell you know what you’re doing, Julia.’”
“Piece of shit,” William snarled.
Wincing, Julia admitted, “That’s not all, though. He said something like, ‘I’m still having a hard time visualizing how that works. Can you demonstrate?’”
“Fuck,” William spat out. “What did you do?”
“Nothing. I froze up.” Julia was shaking now, her vision blurring with tears. “So I demonstrated, because I didn’t know what else to do or say. And then he said, ‘So what you’re telling me is, you suck on it, Julia.’”
“I’m going to kill him.” Julia knew he didn’t mean it literally, but he was positively vibrating with righteous anger. “Please tell me you dumped his account and walked out of there.”
“It takes a lot of time to pack and re-load all the stuff I bring with me,” Julia said, her v oice quavering. “It’s not like I can just abandon all my expensive equipment right there in the lobby with some jerk-off whose fragile ego I just bruised. Besides, they’re currently my most lucrative account. If I lose them, on top of Lars and Meg, I may as well fold.”
“Julie, there’s got to be a way.”
Julia had to close her eyes and pace her breathing so she wouldn’t say anything she would later regret.
“See, this is what men don’t understand,” she began, her voice steady, if strained. “Almost every woman deals with crap like this at work; and then we have to figure out how to walk that razor-thin line between maintaining professional credibility, versus blowing up our careers because we refused to give some guy a blow job. And not only that, we have to navigate that line with only a moment’s notice. Because nobody sent me a daily agenda that said, ‘Nine A.M.: Dunphy’s aquarium. Twelve noon: lunch. Two P.M.: get sexually harassed.’ I didn't have all morning to plan how I was going to respond; I had to figure it out on the fly. Men don’t have to deal with this crap anywhere near as often, and that’s one more reason it’s so much harder for women to compete professionally.”
The whole time she was talking, William’s expression underwent a series of transformations: from angry, to chastened, to clarity, before finally settling on sadness. He reached for her and folded her against his chest, hugging her tightly. Rubbing circles over her back and kissing the top of her head.
“I’m so sorry, sweetheart,” he murmured against her hair. “I’m sorry you’ve had to deal with this.”
“Me too,” she said, her voice muffled against his shirt. “I have no clue what to do.”
He continued comforting her for another minute. Then, he pulled back to look at her. “You said earlier that if you dump Chad’s account, you might as well fold. But you still have the shop.”
“The servicing side of my business is what keeps the brick-and-mortar side up and running.”
He frowned. “I don’t understand.”
She swiped at yet another tear sliding down her cheek. “The shop’s rent is biggest componen t of my overhead. And then inventory alone is twenty-five thousand.”
“A year?”
She barked out a rueful laugh. “A month .” When his mouth dropped open in shock, she added, “The aquarium servicing side is more affordable – you can start with just a few thousand dollars of equipment. After that, it’s just a van, insurance, cell phone, and gas.”
“So why not shift to a service-only model?”
“And close Rob and Tim’s shop?” Julia was growing impatient with her apparently endless well of tears. “Mitch and José would be so heartbroken.”
He tipped his head. “Mitch and José?”
She waved her hand. “Regulars. They knew my uncles.”
A hint of amusement twitched at his lips. “So you want to keep the shop open, for Mitch and José.”
The corners of her mouth pulled down, and she refused to answer. He gathered her into another soothing hug. “Okay. Can you hire an employee or two to staff the shop while you do the servicing side?”
“Yeah, but that would cost even more money.”
“But you would also bring in more money if you’re servicing aquariums five days a week, instead of only Mondays.”
“It’s not just the wage I would be paying, though. For every employee I hire, there are a lot of other incidental business expenses. Accounting, insurance, tax...”
“Okay, what does that amount to?”
“Roughly, for each employee? Double the hourly wage, plus five dollars. And that’s per hour.”
“Okay, but have you ever really sat down and crunched those numbers to see what you would take home at the end of the month?”
Julia frowned. “Not really.”
Pulling back to look at her, he ran his hands up and down her arms. “I can help with that, if you want.”
“It’s not just the money, though. If I hire an employee, I have to worry about what they’re doing while I’m out and about. Or vice versa, if I staff the shop and they do the servicing stuff. But since the servicing side is my bread-and-butter, I would never trust that to anyone else. ”
Once again, a hint of a smile played at his lips. Then he reached into the pocket of his jeans and retrieved something wrapped in a handkerchief. She watched, frowning, as he unfolded it, then gasped when he opened his palm to reveal her uncle’s watermelon tourmaline.
When she looked up again, her mouth agape, William’s hint of a smile bloomed into a full-blown one. “Remember what you said when you gave me this? Watermelon tourmaline unblocks the barriers to your heart and brings balance. You said your uncle wanted you to open your mind and heart to the unexpected. To make peace with the forces that were beyond your control. You gave me this because I was afraid of screwing up our fresh start. You said, for now , it had done its magic for you. Well, for now , it’s done its magic for me.” He turned her hand palm-up. Placed the watermelon tourmaline into her open palm, and closed her fingers around it. “I’ve carried this everywhere, but I’m not afraid anymore. So now, I’m returning it.”
Clenching the stone, her tears spilling over, Julia wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her cheek against the soft flannel shirt she had sewn him. He rubbed gentle circles on her back and kissed the top of her head, his warm lips lingering.
“Oh my God, son; don’t tell me you’re already making her cry!”
Ann’s muffled voice jolted them apart, but they laughed when they found their mothers grinning from the other side of the sliding glass door.
“It’s a good cry, I promise,” Julia assured them, sliding the balcony door open and wiping the tears from her cheeks.
“That’s good,” her mother remarked. “We got back from our walk to find you blubbering and your father completely oblivious. So much for chivalry.”
Julia’s father looked up from the baseball game. “Did you say something?”
With a tiny wink at Julia’s mother, William lied through his teeth. “I was just telling Julia, what this condo complex needs is an aquarium in the community room. For that matter, I think there’s a pretty good market for aquariums in retirement communities, senior centers, and memory-care units. ”
“You know, you’re right,” Julia’s mother seconded; and she and Ann retreated to the sofa to discuss the possibilities.
A smile warmed Julia’s face and cheeks, and he returned it in that sexy way that crinkled the skin at the corner of his eyes. “As for me,” William continued in a low voice, “I’ve always wanted to learn more about saltwater aquariums. Next Monday, can I shadow you while you take care of the one at Chad’s office?”
Laughing, she lightly swatted his arm. “Why, so you can piss around the corners like you did with Kevin on Father’s Day?”
“Of course not.” He grinned. “I'm going to piss on the fuckwad’s golf visor.”